Returnil

Hi hojtsy,

Is this system setup for multi-OS booting? IOW, do you have an OS installed on C:\ and another on F:\? From the designations, it appears that F:\ is set up as the System Partition...

It may also help to understand what your system configuration is designed to do. Of interest is the purpose behind the two HDD types - especially the SATA drive connected to your PCI card.

Thanks
Mike

 

One thing i have noticed on your website for the information for Returnil Virtual System Personal Edition
If i click on the majorgeeks link from this page http://www.returnilvirtualsystem.com/index_files/rvspersonal.htm to download Returnil, then the page it takes me to is the Business Edition 1.62.4105 for download.

The other link "free download" correctly takes me to the Personal Edition 1.6.2.4107.

 

Hi Tony,
Thanks for the heads up - I will let the team know about this link error and get it fixed ASAP

Mike

 

Hi Mike, no need to thank me.
Its me who should be thanking you for letting me have this superb software for free along with the first class support that you also provide for free.

 

I accidentally created a multi-boot configuration some time ago, when I purchased the new SATA drive. I attempted to install a standalone windows to the SATA hard drive and set BIOS to boot from that drive. But I made an error of keeping the old PATA drive connected while installing windows to the other drive. This error resulted in some crippled windows installation on the SATA drive which could not boot the SATA drive withouth the PATA drive present. This was not what I wanted, so disconnected the PATA drive, and installed windows on the SATA drive again. Installation was OK, but booting was only possible if the install CD was in the drive. I suppose that the SATA card caused the problem during booting. I gave up an reformatted the SATA drive, to make it a data-only partition. I restored the system partition of the PATA drive from backup image.
I believed that I removed all traces of a previous multi-boot config as I
- reformatted SATA drive (F
- restored PATA drive primary partition C: to a previous state
- reset the BIOS setting to boot from the PATA drive
Where else can traces of a previous multi-boot config hide? Maybe in the First Track?

 

Is there anyway to turn off the annoying bubble "System Protection is Currently ON" ? at start up. The Red tray icon is enough for me.

 

System Protection on or off prompt at startup.Yep, be nice to be able to turn it off from the gui.

 

Coldmoon,
If I understand correctly Returnil protects \Device\HarddiskVolume1 even if that is not the system partition. Returnil should instead read the
HKLM\System\Setup\SystemPartition value from the registry and protect that volume as system.

 

I must say that this program seems to have a lot of potential, I've downloaded it and so far it's been even lighter (only a feeling) than ShadowUser (this is my default virtual program).

I also want to add that I'd like to try Returnil within ShadowUser, and viceversa ShadowUser within Returnil. Before I might be heading to an ATI emergency restoration, can anyone predict an outcome or has anybody tried something similar. I know that would probably be overkill to run them together, but they definitely work in different ways.

Also reading this thread somebody mentioned that ShadowUser wouldn't survive the Killdisk trojan.... Any thoughts?

 

Thanks for your reply, what would you say about running ShadowUser within Returnil? I know I should do my own tests and bear the consequences, but I'm not so computer savvy like some of you guys.

When you say"some means to delete the partition" is that a program, and which one if I may ask?

 

I'm not giving up ShadowUser yet, but i've been struck by Peter2150 tests with this killdisk trojan, and the possibility of not being able to recover with ATI (I believe this is all we are interested in after all, to save our precious info).

ShadowUser offers more options than Returnil, at a price of course, but I was wondering if combining the two one could get that certainty of removing that remote but possible threat.

 

Hi Osaban,
I agree with Peter on this, there is really little to gain for too much potential risk. If you are looking for a more restrictive setup, you could start by trying SandboxIE within Returnil as both play nicely together...

Mike

 

@ Peter2150

I couldn't agree more, thanks for the advice, and if I remember correctly you said that most good AVs would stop something like killdisk.

@ Coldmoon

I wish your company a great future, I uninstalled Returnil from my machine and installed it into my son's computer where it's working fine.

If Returnil's future upgrades will compete with the current version of ShadowUser, I might consider changing (money is not an issue). I'm happy with ShadowUser but Storagecraft seems only concerned in developing ShadowProtect. They haven't done a single thing to ShadowUser in almost two years (and there are issues).

Thank you for your great support.

 

Just wondering what sort of surfing or downloading you would be doing that would need BOTH Sandboxie and Returnil together. I use both selectively, but not sure where I am still vulnerable if only running one.

Would NOD32 be one of those you tried by any chance. Nod won't let ANYTHING through my system......even when I want it to.................lol

 

With just Returnil running you can still get infected which will require a reboot to be rid of.

With Sandboxie running as well any inet borne attacks are contained so all you have to do is empty the sandboxie to kill off any infections instead of a reboot.

Been running both here with no probs or slowdowns.

Sandboxie was and always will be my first line of defense here.

 

I run both just because I have my default browser set to run sandboxed. It's just another layer of protection for me. Sandboxie isolates my browser or whatever I run sandboxed from my system and Returnil RVS isolates my system partition from my system.

 

@ Franklin and Innerpeace.

Thankyou for your input. I did try and run my browser (Opera) with Returnil, but found the issue of not being easily able to save Bookmarks etc a pain. (I dont use a VM) I have yet to find a way of changing the default Opera bookmarks/adresses folder to another partition, so it is an issue that I need to solve if I am to use Returnil to its fullest potential. I do like the program very much though.

 

Are you saying that you don't have the Virtual Partition installed with RVS? If you do have a VP, a simple but primitive way to save your bookmarks would be to create a notepad file and then copy and paste the bookmark addresses to the file and save it to the VP. Then later when your not using RVS protection, you can add the bookmarks manually from the VP to Opera. It's my 'caveman' workaround. No offense to any cavemen .

I'm also having trouble grasping the whole 'save your data to another partition' thing. That is why I have a small (2GB) virtual partition. It's my 'buffer zone' in learning about separating my data from my programs.

Hopefully someone will give you better and more specific help for your specific problem.

 

Your "Caveman" approach is the only way I can think of doing it, but its a bit too fiddly for me, but appreciate the thought.

For me, it's just a question of safeguading my Data. I know that when it is on a seperate partition, a) it is safe from outside pollution, (and Operating System Glitches) and b) it makes backup a little bit easier and quicker. Just something I have always done.

 

You Guys are so puzzled with VP,at setup you have a choice to create VP or not,i choose not to create one.if i am in Returnil session,data that has to stay i copy to ext. drive,after reboot i bring real system current with my backed up data on the ext. drive,no hassle with VP and if disaster strikes your system or your int.disk toasted,then your safe with this strategy.

 

I have a basic two hard disk setup with C - Q partitions on the first disk and R - U partitions on the second disk. Windows XP is on the C partition & the DVD-ROM is drive D. I installed Returnil on the E partition and activated Session Lock to protect the C partition. I added some files to the C partition whilst in protected mode, and then rebooted. The files were still there
After some experimenting I have found that Returnil is only protecting the Q partition for some reason. Q only contains some program installation files. There has never been an operating system on anything other than the C partition, and the PC has never been dual boot.
I have run Diskpart, and the C partition is listed as \Device\HarddiskVolume1 (as I think it should be) and the Q partition is listed as \Device\HarddiskVolume14.
Any ideas?